Happy Halloween from Matilda

Friends, it's the night before Halloween and my friend Matilda is stopping in to wish you a Happy Halloween!

By this time tomorrow evening, she will be sitting at a large round table with a group of strangers, each one anxious to have 'Madame Matilda' summon their dead loved ones.

They will all gather in the 'Occult Room' of Matilda's large, dark, musty Victorian house. First, she will dim all the gas-lit lamps. Then she will instruct the group of strangers to close their eyes, and when they do, she will raise her arms and commence to move them in a counter clockwise direction. She will then call out to the unkindness of ravens she keeps as her assistants and they will gather on the rooftops. They will flap their wings and cackle loudly. The winds will blow and the gas-lit lamps will flicker, and Matilda, now in a trance, will beckon the dead as they float and rise above the table. And the strangers, terrified, will call out their grief loudly as they learn the secrets of their dead ancestors - secrets they were never meant to know... 

The strangers will beg Matilda to cease her summoning. Matilda, still in a trance, cannot hear their pleas. Suddenly the ravens have mysteriously gotten inside the house and are flying inside the room with the dead ancestors, croaking, cackling and hissing at the strangers! Matilda, laughs maniacally, picks up her wand and thrusts it into the air. A bolt of lightening crashes into the house and the light, now bright and blinding, flashes! Suddenly all the dead ancestors vaporize and the table is littered with shiny black rocks that look like ravens.

The next morning, Matilda is walking slowly through her garden, tending to her flowers, plants and trees. A stranger walks by and lets out a loud croaking, cackling noise. Matilda pretends not to notice and the stranger croaks and cackles even louder. Matilda raises her arm, then brings it down quickly, pointing to the ground. The stranger, animated and lively in their demand that Matilda look their way, suddenly becomes mute.

Matilda smiles, picks a bouquet of orange chrysanthemums, walks into her house, and shuts the door.